Franciscan Media

Like the good thief who hung condemned next to the sinless Christ on a cross, anyone who confesses at the end of life may experience the same eternal reward as those who have lived a lifetime of piety and penitence for their sins. Their lives, St. Bernard of Clairvaux says, can be like “a short bridge from the religion of death unto the land of the living.”

In certain places, the Mother’s presence is felt in a particularly vivid way. These places sometimes radiate their light over a great distance and draw people from afar. Their radiance may extend over a diocese, a whole nation, or at times over several countries and even continents. These places are the Marian sanctuaries or shrines.

In the Eucharist, we actually receive the Risen Jesus—an encounter that transforms and miraculously changes us into him. We experience the Love that is his very Person. “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him” (John 6:55–56). This is a revolutionary promise from the revealed words of Jesus himself!

Remember that you can never be separated from the Being who gave you life. You were created by the Love that gives life to all things. Human love is a way to touch this greater Love. That is its purpose.

– from the book The Divine Spark

Mary as a good mother teaches us to be, like her, capable of making definitive decisions; definitive choices, at this moment in a time controlled by, so to speak, a philosophy of the provisional. It is very difficult to make a lifetime commitment. And she helps us to make those definitive decisions in the full freedom with which she said “yes” to the plan God had for her life (cf. Luke 1:38). Let us ask Mary to help us fix our eyes intently on Jesus, to follow him always, even if this is demanding.

If we have to wait for long for anything, we feel stress rising within—a sure sign that impatience is getting the upper hand. And when we are impatient, we can lose our temper, act rashly, harm ourselves or others, or make a mess of that which we wanted to turn out well.

– from the book: Don’t Panic: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough